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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28492266">Fate and Other Terrible Things</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliemoran/pseuds/elliemoran'>elliemoran</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Actors, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops &amp; Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Coffee Shops, Holidays, M/M, Minor Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss/Ymir, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Soulmates</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:55:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,714</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28492266</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliemoran/pseuds/elliemoran</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi knew a lot of things about life. This wasn't his first one, for a start. And he knew there was such a thing as fate, because otherwise how could he keep meeting so many of the people he'd known, and lost, in that other life? </p>
<p>But he also knew better than to think fate was on his side. Because it very, very much was not. It hated his guts, and the feeling was mutual. </p>
<p>And yet it wasn't until the day he walked into the small downtown cafe where Eren Yeager worked that Levi realized exactly how much of an ass fate could be.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Levi/Eren Yeager</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>129</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1: Life Lessons</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_A_Kittrell/gifts">J_A_Kittrell</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is for this year's Ereri winter gift exchange. I was SO excited by all the prompts I got maybe a little carried away, but I've had such fun writing all the elements of this story. </p>
<p>I hope you enjoy it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Almost as soon as Levi became aware of the world around him, he knew he’d been somewhere else before. </p>
<p>The concept of past lives had meant nothing to him then, of course, or even a little later when he explained to his mother all about how sad he’d been when she’d died and left him alone, that other time. Or when he’d caught a glimpse of a movie on TV and known, to the bottom of a soul that felt uncomfortably wrong in such a too-small body, how it felt when the blade in your hand sliced through living flesh. </p>
<p>Eventually, he’d come to understand three truths, each of which drastically affected his life. The first was the certain knowledge that he had lived before, and what he remembered had been a life very, very different from this one. The second was that if he didn’t want a whole bunch of adults interfering in his and his mother’s lives, he needed to get extremely good at acting his age. </p>
<p>He could have lived with truth one and two if it weren’t for number three. </p>
<p>There had been a few signs of his third truth along the way, but it wasn’t until one sunny afternoon when he was seven that he <em> really </em> figured it out. </p>
<p>He told the elderly neighbor who ostensibly watched him while his mother worked that he was going out to play with friends. Then, when she turned back to her TV show, he snuck one of her novels - this one a chunky paperback with purple foil lettering over the couple entwined on the cover - into his bag and escaped. He’d bring it back, but she’d never have understood him wanting to read it any more than she’d understood any of the other books she’d taken away from him. </p>
<p>He arrived at the park squashed into the rectangle of grass across from his apartment building just in time to see a girl, maybe a year or so younger than him and at least a head shorter, sucker punch one of the boys hard enough to make him cry.</p>
<p>She stood, balanced on the wooden logs that bordered the sandpit, knobbly elbows tucked into her sides and fists still held ready as she glared down at the boy who’d landed on his butt. </p>
<p>“Go <em> away </em> . And I better not hear about you bothering any of my friends again, or I’ll come back and I’ll <em> find </em> you, and you’ll be <em> so </em> sorry.”</p>
<p>The boy scrambled to his feet, tears, snot, and dribbles of blood trailing down to his chin. Levi recognized him as part of the gang of not-quite-teens who hung around the neighborhood, proving how much stronger they were than anyone smaller than them whenever parents weren’t looking, so when the boy took one aggressive step in towards the girl Levi edged in closer. </p>
<p>Mostly, going to the park was for his mother’s sake. If he didn’t at least <em> pretend </em> to enjoy being around other kids she’d get that worried look in her eyes and start listening to the neighbors when they said things like ‘Kuchel, dear, he needs a father figure in his life’, or ‘you ought to sign him up for <em> group activities’ </em>. So he’d go, find a quiet spot to read for a few hours, then wedge himself into some group playing tag or kicking a ball around right about the time her shift was ending.</p>
<p>It worked out well, except for noisy and obnoxious playground idiots like this one. They’d looked at the short, skinny Levi and put him in the category of things they either beat up or ignored - right up until they’d found out he was also mean, fast, and better than them at not letting any adults catch him. </p>
<p>They stayed out of his way now, and he didn’t want the increased adult presence they’d bring on if it got out that they were beating up kids in his park again. </p>
<p>The boy stomped towards the girl, but she didn’t back down, even when he loomed close enough that she had to look up to meet his scowl with her own. She raised her clenched fists, narrowed her eyes, and hissed, “Try it. <em> Buttface </em>.”</p>
<p>It made a few of the more sheltered kids in the crowd surrounding them gasp, but it did the trick. The boy quickly jerked away a step, then in a quick motion stuck his middle finger up in front of the girl’s face - a move she promptly returned - before turning on his heel and lumbering away. </p>
<p>Levi stepped back as the circle of little victors closed in around the girl, many young voices speaking excitedly as she preened and grinned proudly at her adoring audience. He was just turning away when something about her expression, something about the way the sunlight reflected off of features he <em> knew </em> he’d never seen before made him stop. </p>
<p>He walked closer, craning his neck to get a better look at her face. As if he’d called her name, she blinked, then suddenly lifted her head and looked directly at him. </p>
<p>Memories flooded into Levi the instant their eyes met. Memories of a girl with a face not quite like this one. Older, thinner, with the fragility that came from growing up mostly hungry, but one who had worn the same shit-eating grin as she’d stood crowing over some jerk she’d just decked. </p>
<p><em> Isabel </em>. </p>
<p>In that other time, she’d been his family. He’d wanted to protect her, would have done anything to keep her safe, and when he’d failed it had almost broken him. </p>
<p>Yet here she was, alive again and wearing a frilly dress while she intimidated a boy she had to stand on a wall to reach. </p>
<p>To Levi’s horror he saw that while he had been lost in the memories in his head, her eyes had filled with tears that were now spilling out and down her cheeks. Frantically, he tried to think of what to say to make her stop crying, but before he could do more than draw in an uncertain breath, she suddenly laughed - a high, happy sound - and threw herself off the sandpit wall towards him. </p>
<p>She was tiny, even smaller than he was, but he couldn’t move when she leaped at him and stood frozen when she wrapped her arms tightly around his waist in a breath-stealing hug. </p>
<p>That was the scene her older brother Furlan saw when he arrived, brought by one of the kids who’d had about as much confidence as Levi in her beating the older boy, and when Levi looked up and met <em> his </em> eyes he had his second major shock of the hour. </p>
<p>Furlan. The final member of that long-gone family. They were reunited, and it would have been a good day if it wasn’t also the perfect example of Levi’s third truth in action. </p>
<p>They’d been neighbors their whole lives. They’d lived in apartment buildings on the same street, played in the same playground, knew and recognized the same kids, and yet somehow they’d never met until today, and today was the day when Isabel and Furlan got to go to the park one last time before their parents loaded them into a moving truck that would take them to the other side of the country. </p>
<p>And so Levi learned his third truth: Fate...was an asshole. </p>
<p>It wasn’t until years later after they finally reconnected that they talked about that day, and Levi found out Isabel hadn’t seen the memories of that other time the way he had. She’d just felt a sudden burst of emotion, so much stronger and more complicated than anything she could have known at that age. She’d known <em> what </em> Levi was to her, even if she didn’t know who.  </p>
<p>Most of the others Levi met over the years remembered like that. Some felt less, some felt more, and few saw, but in fragmented images. Very, very rarely, he met someone who <em> remembered </em>. </p>
<p>Hanji remembered. Everything, Levi was pretty sure - or more than he did in any case, but Hanji never answered when Levi asked about the blanks and blurs, or what had happened after his memories ended. </p>
<p>Some he’d met over the years seemed to know him, though he didn’t remember them at all. His fifth-grade teacher had been one of those. The first time they met the man all but threw himself onto the floor, groveling in hero worship so embarrassingly unrestrained that Levi instantly became notorious throughout the whole school. He made Levi sit right at the front, hung onto his every word in class, read out his answers and essays as examples for all the others to follow, and was openly hostile to any student or teacher he thought even hinted at disrespecting Levi. </p>
<p>Bad as that had been, Levi would have been able to deal with it if fate hadn’t decided it hadn’t been enough of a dick just yet. </p>
<p>It was less than a year later, just after his twelfth birthday, when a nosy neighbor called Child Services on Kuchel for leaving Levi alone when she worked overnight shifts - something Levi had worked very hard to convince her was not a big deal. Two CS agents came knocking; one agent looked into Levi’s eyes and immediately conceived a dislike for him so strong that if it hadn’t been for the second agent would very likely have dragged him off to juvie that night. </p>
<p>It hadn’t ended there. The man seemed to have made it his personal mission to make Levi and Kuchel’s lives hell. He appeared at her work, at Levi’s school, then spent an afternoon knocking on every door in their apartment building trying to get someone to tell him something he could use against them. </p>
<p>Then fate threw in a bonus. One of the carrots it sometimes sent Levi’s way, that he hated almost as much as he hated the sticks. </p>
<p>Kuchel quit her night job, then got fired from one of her day jobs because the manager didn’t like the attention the CS agent brought to the place. The only job she had left was at the small grocery store a few blocks away from their building, though since the manager there felt bad for her he’d given her extra shifts so she made enough money for rent. One morning, as she was walking back from her break, a woman stopped her, handed her a glossy business card, and told her that she knew it sounded sketchy as hell but she worked for a casting agency. </p>
<p>She said her own mother lived in the area so she’d seen Levi around for years and thought there was something about him that made him unique. She said her agency had been trying to cast a child actor for a certain role, and Levi was so perfect for it that she hadn’t been able to even think of anyone else. She invited Levi and Kuchel to look her company up and to come in for an audition. </p>
<p>The role paid very, very well, but most of the filming would happen on-site, so they’d have to leave the city for at least four months.   </p>
<p>Kuchel almost threw the card away, even after she looked up the company and found out it was both legitimate and very, very respected. She had always wanted Levi to have a normal childhood, most especially because she was well aware that there was something about him that didn’t quite match other twelve-year-olds.  </p>
<p>Plus Levi figured his mother had probably noticed how much fate liked screwing them over. Anything so perfectly timed was <em> not </em> to be trusted. </p>
<p>Then one afternoon less than a week later, Levi, who’d been spending the hours after school at the library while his mother worked, was stopped and detained by the police on his way home because of an anonymous tip they’d received that he’d been selling drugs. They kept him as long as they could because the tip had come from “a well-respected official’’, but had had to, reluctantly, let him go when they found nothing on him.</p>
<p>The next day Kuchel got someone to cover her shift, dressed them both in their best clothes, and brought Levi to the address on the card. </p>
<p>They weren’t expected, but the woman who rushed to reception the moment she heard they’d come swept that issue aside. Later, Levi learned she was one of the owners of the company, but at the time he just noticed the way no one bothered to disagree with anything she said. </p>
<p>Levi auditioned. It wasn’t a hard role for him, and he’d had plenty of practice pretending to be someone he didn’t feel like he was, so he wasn’t surprised when they immediately offered him the part.   </p>
<p>They’d sat at the desk in front of the woman who’d invited them and the company lawyer, Kuchel gripping Levi’s hand tightly as she listened fiercely to every detail of the contract. On her face, Levi saw the mixture of hope and worry, guilt, and a little excitement, and he remembered how it had looked <em> then </em>, sickly pale and hollowed out by illness and exhaustion. </p>
<p>He convinced her to sign the contract. </p>
<p>That first film had been a success. So had his next, and as such things sometimes went, he’d become the go-to choice for almost any serious drama that needed a teen actor, up until he was old enough to become the go-to young adult actor. </p>
<p>He liked acting. It made him feel almost the same way reading did. This world was so different from what part of his mind always insisted it should be, but somehow it all seemed to make more sense when he was immersed in someone else’s story. </p>
<p>For his twenty-first birthday, he convinced his mother to let him buy her a house and a bookstore in a quiet town an hour out of the city, where she could live the dream life he’d once managed to get her to tell him she’d always wanted. </p>
<p>He met more people he remembered over the years. Through Hanji, who fate had, on a benevolent day, set up as Levi’s agent, Levi had even found Mike and Erwin. He was mostly content and was starting to wonder if fate wasn’t the asshole he’d always thought it was. </p>
<p>Then one morning he walked into a small cafe downtown, and there was Eren. </p>
<p>It wasn’t that Levi hadn’t remembered Eren before. Those last years of <em>then </em> had been so intrinsically bound up with him that they would have held long blank stretches of nothing otherwise. </p>
<p>He’d known, in a dim, significant way, that he’d loved Eren, but only in the same way he’d known that he’d had black hair, or that he’d been able to use both his right and his left hand to fight. The knowledge had been there in his mind, but the emotion of it had been walled away as though part of him had been trying to protect the rest of him until he was ready to bear the full weight of it.</p>
<p>Levi wasn’t sure he was ready yet. </p>
<p>In this life, nothing had truly prepared him for the depth of the misery, loss, and love that filled him at the sight of the man across the room. </p>
<p>He suddenly realized his hands were trembling, and he shoved them into his pockets. </p>
<p>Someone pushed the door open behind him, the handle jabbing into his back, and he welcomed the distraction of the physical pain. He stepped to the side, deliberately gathering himself together as the normal business of the coffee shop continued around him. </p>
<p>Eren laughed at something someone next to him behind the counter said, then turned to shoot a grin at a customer as he handed the man a mug. He spoke, but Levi couldn’t make out his words from where he was. </p>
<p>He was too far. He needed to get closer. </p>
<p>Drawing in a shuddering breath, Levi’s legs lurched into motion. There was a feeling of vital urgency in his chest, telling him to shove through the people in between them right <em> now </em>. Yet at the same time, a deep part of his soul was terrified of the moment Eren would look up and meet his eyes. Finally, he stood at the counter, his eyes fixed on Eren’s face as he waited for him to turn, to face him. </p>
<p>It happened. Their eyes met. </p>
<p>Eren smiled. But the smile was wrong. It was nice, warm, friendly. Impersonal. </p>
<p>“What can I get for you today, sir?” </p>
<p>Something like rage broke through Levi’s tension, so strong that it burned out within seconds, leaving behind such a feeling of defeat that it was all Levi could do to breathe. Was this fate’s ultimate joke? Levi fought the urge to grab Eren’s collar, to demand he look at Levi more closely, to ask if he had truly had meant so little to him that there hadn’t been enough emotion to last to this lifetime. </p>
<p>Instead, he shifted his gaze so he didn’t have to meet Eren’s oh-so-friendly expression. He ordered a coffee, got a table in the corner, and tried to collect himself.</p>
<p>Was it because he was in disguise? He’d taken off his sunglasses, but he wore his usual hat and the scarf that covered the bottom of his face. But no. Appearance had never been an issue in <em> recognizing </em> people. </p>
<p>He brooded, watching as Eren smiled that same smile and spoke in that same voice to every customer coming in. </p>
<p>Well, fuck him. If he’d loved Levi in the way Levi had loved him there was no way he wouldn’t recognize him now. So <em> fuck </em> him. Let him have this life. </p>
<p>The liar. </p>
<p>Levi thrust back his chair, ignoring the way the sound made almost everyone still in the cafe turn his way, and stalked towards the door as he told himself he’d never come back. </p>
<p>He had, of course. </p>
<p>For almost a year, Levi went to the café every morning he could. Eren was the cafe’s baker so his shift started and ended early, and sometimes he’d be working in the little kitchen at the back and Levi wouldn’t get to see him at all. </p>
<p>If he was working at the counter, though, Levi always made sure to go to him, just in case <em> this </em> time was different.  </p>
<p>When the others working there started to recognize him as a regular he changed his disguise, but he couldn’t make himself not go. Unhappiness built inside him, getting stronger and stronger every time Eren didn’t recognize him. His life began to revolve around those moments at the cafe. His mother started to worry and told him she was thinking of moving back to the city. Hanji got cranky and threatened to sign him up for the next comedy that offered if he didn’t handle whatever was making him so miserable to be around.  </p>
<p>All of that was why, on the day Levi arrived back in the city and found the café boarded up and shuttered, he told himself it was a good thing. Now he could move on, let it go. He should go back to dating. He should be glad he’d never see Eren again.  </p>
<p>The idea almost made him want to throw up. </p>
<p>He called Hanji on his way home and asked for the biggest, most involved script they could get their hands on, and when Hanji delivered - as always - got as busy as he could with work.  </p>
<p>He figured the Eren chapter of this life was over. </p>
<p>He had, of course, forgotten about fate being an asshole.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Levi's Three Rules</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Snow gathered inside the collar of Eren’s jacket as he hurried down the sidewalk, arms wrapped around the soggy, but still warm paper bag in his arms. He was already freezing - he figured he spent most of his time freezing these days - so the little trickle of ice water down his neck as it melted didn’t really add too much to the misery. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d be warm too when he got to his new job, and he was less than a block away. It was just that this neighborhood wasn’t the type that expected any resident able to afford to live in one of the fancy townhouses lining its streets to ever have to use public transport. The closest subway station was an ice-covered, snowy, frigid, fifteen-minute walk away. He could have taken a bus from the station, but the buses only ran every half hour.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For maybe the hundredth time since he’d stepped out of his apartment building that morning, Eren told himself he really needed to figure out the budget for a new winter coat. The one he was wearing had been fine back home where an inch of snow was a newsworthy miracle, but here in the city, he might as well have been wearing a damp towel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His cousin, Historia, had warned him, and since she’d escaped to the city three whole years before he had he really should have listened. He could admit now he’d been cocky, sure he’d be too tough to be bothered by something as insignificant as sub-freezing temperatures, but in his defense, he’d had no real idea of how cold you could get and not actually die. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last two winters had been fine. Historia had gotten him a job at the cafe she’d worked at when she first came to the city, barely a minutes walk from the apartment he shared with her and her girlfriend, Ymir, and since he did all the cooking they did all the grocery shopping while he stayed warm in the apartment.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the cafe...well the cafe wasn’t paying him anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’d be okay though, being cold wasn’t all that big a deal, really. After all, the three of them had a </span>
  <em>
    <span>plan</span>
  </em>
  <span>. A dream. They needed money to make it happen, of course, but how many dreams came true for free?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Historia got okay pay and good tips at the mostly-legal mini-casino club she worked at, and Eren had been taking any odd jobs he could manage since the cafe closed, but it was Ymir who earned the type of money - housekeeping for rich people through an agency - that meant they didn’t get laughed out of the bank when they’d asked for a loan. If they got that loan and if they cut their spending down as low as it could go, they’d calculated they’d have enough in the bank by spring. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had all been going well. They’d walked everywhere it wasn’t stupid to walk to. They turned off or down everything they figured they could live without - which included their heat at the apartment - and worked out a trade deal with the landlord for a chunk off of their rent in exchange for the bread Eren baked every morning, and birthday cakes for every one of his brood of grandkids. Ymir even bribed one of the people she worked with to share some of the food their client threw out every day. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Ymir had slipped, fallen, broken her arm and two ribs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her agency was notorious for instantly firing people if they had to give a job up, for any reason, and the three of them needed Ymir’s name and pay stubs when they met with the bank next month. So they’d worked out a plan that involved no one telling the agency Ymir had been hurt, and Eren covering for her with her current client.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luckily, the client agreed to go along with it. At first, he hadn’t wanted anyone new in his house, but she’d worn him down after she swore Eren fit the requirements he’d given her agency even more than she did. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They </span>
  <em>
    <span>were</span>
  </em>
  <span> simple requirements, after all. All he wanted was someone with decent cooking skills, better cleaning skills, and due to some bad experiences Ymir’s bosses at the agency refused to tell her any more about, they had to be someone who would never, under any circumstances, fall in love, like or lust with him.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren was two weeks in now, and apart from rule number three he was fitting in perfectly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>To his intense relief, he finally reached the white marble stairs that marked the entrance to his client’s red-brick townhouse. He ignored the iciness soaking in through his useless shoes as he hopped up the steps through the fresh snow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The instant warmth that surrounded him when he unlocked the door and stepped inside made him almost whimper with relief, and he’d just about stopped trembling by the time he finished hanging up his soaked jacket and sliding his now bare, clammy feet into the slippers he kept by the door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He tucked the paper bag under one arm and padded into the main body of the apartment - a wide living room that was all grey, cool shadows, lit by the light that leaked in from around the blinds covering the tall, multi-story windows. He heard a croaky yowl and saw the giant, one-eyed cat - appropriately named Smartass - trotting across from the staircase to meet him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he bent down to run his free hand along the cat’s back, he marvelled again at how little Smartass suited this house. Everything else always seemed to align perfectly, from the wide planks of the pale wood floors to the modern, sleek lines of the furniture, to the glass and smooth metal of the spiral staircase up to the second-floor balcony overlooking the living room. Things that didn’t match exactly, like his client’s extensive collection of books, were all tucked away in smooth, uniform cabinets. Even the holiday decorations the hired decorator had put up blended in seamlessly. It was all so well coordinated that Eren sometimes felt as if he was looking at a photo from the holiday edition of some ultra-contemporary home magazine. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only things that didn’t fit were the cat, and the Christmas tree Eren had decorated. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tree embarrassed him, a little. It was like an explosion of color you couldn’t help but see from almost every room in this house. But he’d never said he’d be </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span> at decorating the tree, he’d just offered to do it when he’d noticed the decorator had left it bare. Maybe he’d gotten carried away, a little. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> asked if he should call the decorator back in to fix it, but his client told him not to bother. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d caught the man staring at it a few times, but he could never tell what he was thinking when he did.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For an actor, especially one whose emotions Eren had been avidly watching on-screen for more than half his life, his new employer’s face could be remarkably hard to read.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Expertly avoiding the cat twining through his legs, Eren made his way into the kitchen. He dumped his bag on the counter and food in the cat bowl to get Smartass out of the way, then pulled on his apron while he checked the diet sheet on the fridge to make sure there were no new limitations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He glanced at the clock on the wall, saw it was already quarter past eight, and sighed. He lifted his eyes up to the ceiling, staring as if he could see into the room above while he listened carefully for a long minute.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he heard nothing, he shot a look at the happily eating cat. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll feed you an extra bowl if you go wake him up.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cat ignored him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Huffing out a breath, Eren gave up and got to work preparing for breakfast. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe</span>
  </em>
  <span> he deliberately clanged the pots together when he extracted the frying pan, and yeah, maybe he didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> to throw the bread knife into the sink hard enough to make it clatter, and possibly slamming the dishwasher door shut after he pulled out a coffee mug was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> over the top. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Possibly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But when the clock told him it was almost half-past eight, he knew he was out of time. He’d have to go wake his client up in person. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leaving the cat happily cleaning its face, and with a mug of fresh coffee in his hand, Eren stepped out of the kitchen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he climbed up the stairs to the second floor, he noticed the white light that had been seeping in around the blinds was now tinged with gold as the snow clouds that had made his commute extra miserable that morning began to clear out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knocked - loudly, and with long pauses in between - before letting himself into the main bedroom, where his eyes were caught by the long stream of pale morning sunlight that cast a wide band across the floor towards the bed, where the tangle of sheets didn’t quite cover the perfectly curved butt of the man sleeping there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren barely stopped himself from just dropping the coffee where he stood and stomping out of the room. It was either that or launch himself closer to get a better look. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>How in hell was he supposed to not get himself fired when the man he wasn’t supposed to be attracted to insisted on sleeping in the nude?  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Plus, to make it all even more impossible, his client wasn’t just </span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone</span>
  </em>
  <span>. His new boss was Levi Ackerman. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking</span>
  </em>
  <span> Ackerman. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Only the guy Eren had had a major crush on since the first time he’d watched him stalk onto a screen as the pre-teen soldier king in Levi’s first film.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No. Eren shook his head to dislodge his train of thought. Not Levi. He was Eren’s employer now. The client. He couldn’t let himself think of him by name. He had no chance of not getting fired if he started thinking of the man as </span>
  <em>
    <span>Levi</span>
  </em>
  <span>.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taking a deep breath, Eren pasted a smile cultivated by years of customer service onto his face and walked briskly towards the bed. In a voice that would have made any one of his friends tell him to stop sounding like an ass, he called out, “It’s eight-thirty, Mr. Ackerman. Good morning.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The beautiful muscles of the back framed so well by white cotton sheets moved, flexing as the man stirred. One well-sculpted arm shifted, bracing against the mattress and pushing up, and then Levi </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking</span>
  </em>
  <span> Ackerman was personally staring up into Eren’s face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren had tried. He really had. But he couldn’t make himself maintain eye contact when the man - looking like </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> - was stark naked. He stared fixedly at his forehead instead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi slid over to sit on the side of the bed, his modesty only preserved by a corner of the sheet over his lap and took the mug Eren was blindly holding out to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eyes turned down now, Levi sipped at the coffee. “Thank you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The usual schedule today?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. We start early.” Levi glanced at the clock on his bedside table, then leaned over to set the mug down beside it. “I have to leave in an hour.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I see.” Eren was already backing away before Levi began to stand, and turned sharply on his heel just as the sheet fell away. “I’ll have breakfast ready as soon as you come down.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He escaped before Levi could answer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His mind was perfectly blank as he crossed the balcony, went down the stairs, and walked back into the kitchen. Then he slumped against the wall, closed his eyes, and gave himself thirty seconds to add all the best details of the last ten minutes to the carefully preserved scrapbook in his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This job was either going to be the death of him, or he’d leave it with the self-control of a saint.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When his eyes opened, they immediately met the self-satisfied ones of the cat, now sitting primly on the kitchen counter next to the upside-down cover Eren had placed over the plate that had once held strips of bacon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren swore. “Get </span>
  <em>
    <span>off</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Smartass.”  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eren was just setting a new plate on the table when he heard a faint noise and looked up to see Levi in the doorway. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cat, who had been extra affectionately getting in his way since he’d gotten kicked off of the counter, abandoned him to trot over and rub against Levi’s leg. He yowled up at him loudly as if he hadn’t just finished eating two breakfasts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A little corner of Eren was disappointed to see that Levi was completely dressed now, but he shoved that part away. He got distracted by Levi’s hair seconds later anyway. It was long at the moment, for his current role, and he’d used clips to hold it back from his face. He looked so damn pretty that it physically hurt Eren to tear his eyes away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Busily, he grabbed a spatula and began scraping at the empty pan. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have a seat. Breakfast is ready.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He heard a chair scrape back behind him. He took his time grabbing two fresh cups, one of coffee, one of tea, and a piece of toast, but when he moved back towards the table he saw Levi hadn’t started eating yet.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t surprised. It had taken him all of two days in this house to realize Levi hated eating alone.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi took the tea Eren handed him, nodded thanks, and wordlessly started on his breakfast the moment Eren sat across from him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the silence in the room lengthened Eren felt the tension he’d been carrying all morning ease. Out of everything, he’d come to love these moments the best - he didn’t know why, but something about simply existing next to Levi felt somehow made him feel comfortable and </span>
  <em>
    <span>right</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once he’d gotten past nerves, and the certainty he’d be fired any second, of course. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Idly letting his thoughts drift, he sipped at his coffee and slowly broke off pieces of his toast while Levi neatly and methodically ate his way through the food he’d made for him. He was so lost in thought that he was completely taken by surprise when he realized that he’d been staring at Levi’s face, and Levi was now watching him, thoughtfully.    </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren choked on his toast. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He made a big deal of clearing his throat. Then he took a big gulp of his coffee, which he also choked on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luckily, that gave him enough time to think of something to say once he could speak again. “Um. So is your agent picking you up today?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still watching Eren with a concerned frown, Levi nodded.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re running out of time, you should finish eating.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi hesitated, but picked up his fork again and speared a fried tomato with it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I made them a pack for lunch, too.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi scowled and stabbed harder. “They can feed themselves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t mind. It’s in the fridge next to yours.” Eren took another sip of his coffee. “I’ll make up some food for you to bring them too, for the week I’m on holiday.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi’s fork paused halfway, then carried on moving towards his mouth. “You’re off from Christmas Eve?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Until the Monday after New Years.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi took another bite. “Is that long enough for you to go back home?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not going home,” Eren said firmly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Too</span>
  </em>
  <span> firmly. He flushed a little when Levi looked up at him. “I don’t really get along with anyone I have left back there.” He shrugged. “My friends are all here in the city, anyway.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi picked up his tea, took a sip. “I suppose you have to consider your girlfriend, too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren choked again. He waved a hand to say he was alright when Levi half stood to come help.“My girlfriend?” He finally managed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” Levi wasn’t looking at him, he seemed occupied by the details of settling back in his seat.“Won’t you be spending the holidays with her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All Eren could do was quickly cram the rest of his toast into his mouth so the sound he made in answer was as unintelligible as possible. Desperately, he tried to remember what Ymir had told him she’d told Levi about him. She’d warned Eren she’d had to push a little before Levi had gone with the replacement idea, but he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>sure</span>
  </em>
  <span> she’d have told him if she’d made up a girlfriend.    </span>
</p><p>
  <span>To his incredible relief, he heard the front door of the house slam open, and then Hanji’s loud voice as they came striding towards the kitchen. “Levi! Hey Levi, I’m early, but I thought traffic would be worse than it was.” They appeared in the kitchen door, grinning hugely even as they winked at Eren. “We don’t want to be late, after all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi scowled up at them. “Don’t lie. You just came to get fed.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sit, Hanji,” Eren said as he quickly finished chewing the toast in his mouth and pushed his chair back. “I’ll make you some breakfast.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well since I’m here.” Unrepentant, Hanji slid onto the chair next to Levi. “I hope you have some of that bread you make left.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do. And some muffins.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I was just thinking about how perfect a muffin would be this morning.” Hanji tried to nab the last piece of toast from Levi’s plate but retreated when Levi slapped at their hand. “Seriously, you have skills. If you ever open a breakfast place I’d be there every morning.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the middle of pouring another mug of coffee, Eren’s hands stilled for a moment at Hanji’s words, but before he could respond the conversation at the table had moved on to a discussion over whether they’d get to eat lunch before dinnertime, what with how fussy the current producer was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The silent peace of earlier was gone, but Eren always enjoyed the way everything got louder and brighter when Hanji was in the room. He was pretty sure Levi - no matter how much he complained - liked it too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe he could talk Hanji into coming over to have breakfast with Levi while he was away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But no, he had to remember. He could supply the food, but letting Levi know he worried about whether he ate it or not would be dangerous.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust wasn’t the only thing he wasn’t supposed to be feeling.   </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As Hanji gobbled down one of Eren’s muffins with one hand and drove the car through morning traffic with the other, Levi stared out at the snowy streets flying by.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks like traffic is clearing,” Hanji said, in between mouthfuls. “We should make it on time, after all.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’d be earlier if you didn’t keep getting lost.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, well, you live in the middle of nowhere and whoever designed your neighborhood clearly hates people.” Hanji shuddered. “Give me a simple grid any day. None of this cul-de-sac shit.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you don’t like my neighborhood then stop picking me up. Moblit is a better driver than you, anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Only if you think following the law automatically makes you a good driver. And I told you, I thought this way would be more efficient. We can get work done on the way in.”   </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get off it. We both know you’re only after Eren’s food.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s so rude.” Hanji attempted to look offended as they licked the last of the muffin from the paper wrapper. “And here I was trying to do you a favor.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi snorted and grabbed the second muffin from the bag between them an instant before Hanji’s seeking hand reached it. He opened it slowly, deliberately, enjoying Hanji’s pout.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re so mean, Levi. You don’t even like blueberry.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do when Eren makes muffins. I’d eat turpentine if he baked it into a cake.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Hanji conceded the point with a blissful sigh, as they gunned the car through a yellow light and into a fast left turn. “He has a way, doesn’t he? Who’d have thought our little Eren would turn into a master baker. Seriously, Levi, how in the hell did you get this lucky?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi stuffed a chunk of muffin into his mouth. “Mmph.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, it’s amazing enough that you found Eren at all, but then you find out he cooks like a god. I’d even drive through the </span>
  <em>
    <span>suburbs</span>
  </em>
  <span> if it meant I got to eat his food every day.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He works for me, not you. Leave his food alone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe I should hire him too.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Levi said firmly. “You can’t.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hanji was silent for a long moment, and Levi felt their gaze fix on him. The moment went on long enough that if Levi didn’t know Hanji really was a good, if incautious driver, he’d have snapped at them to get their eyes back on the road.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Feeling possessive, are we?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi shifted in his seat, stretching out his legs. “Not especially.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, if you like him, I don’t see why you haven’t already gone for him. Snap him up before someone else gets addicted to his cooking. You already have an advantage since no one else can possibly know him as well as you do.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hanji. Drop it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s perfect Levi, you see him every day. You have so many opportunities to woo him. Use those bedroom eyes of yours.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do not have bedroom eyes.” Levi snorted and then had to take a second to think. “What the hell even </span>
  <em>
    <span>are</span>
  </em>
  <span> bedroom eyes?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Keep a mirror handy next time you’re watching Eren when you don’t think he can see you. Perfect examples right there.” Hanji whipped the car to the other side of the road to pass a slow bus, jerking back into their lane just before the oncoming traffic would have hit them. Levi braced himself with experienced ease as horns around them blared. “And anyway, all you have to do is use the time you still have him in the house to seduce him a little.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What, so I should just drape myself over the kitchen table while he’s making breakfast?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wouldn’t hurt.” Hanji shot Levi a look. “I’m sure that mind of yours can come up with some way of tempting him.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That sounds stupid. I’m not doing it.” And Levi told himself adamantly that parading naked in front of Eren every morning did </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> count as ‘tempting’ him. “And in any case, he already has a girlfriend.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” For the first time that morning, Hanji actually looked taken aback. “He does?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Levi turned his head to stare at the shop fronts zooming by outside the car. “She’s blonde, stacked, round, pretty. Cute.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hanji said nothing at first, and when they finally spoke, all humor had disappeared from their voice. “Almost the opposite of you, then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t a thought Levi hadn’t had, over and over, before. So he ignored the way Hanji’s words jabbed sharply into something raw in his gut. “Apart from having a girlfriend, he’s an employee. And I know very, very well that he’s never seen me as anything but someone he works for from the first time we met.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Just because he doesn’t seem to remember the you from that life, you’re giving up? Levi. You </span>
  <em>
    <span>loved</span>
  </em>
  <span> each other.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did we?” Silently gathering himself, Levi watched the world go by outside the car windows. “I don’t know, Hanji. It was a long time ago. Things were different, and we both know what I think I remember might not be the way it actually was.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bull</span>
  <em>
    <span>shit</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Hanji’s tone made Levi’s head whip around. “You forget, Levi. It wasn’t only you, then. Every damned person around you could see how painfully much the two of you felt for each other. If it wasn’t for-” Hanji hesitated, then changed what they were about to say. “Look. Neither of you had any choice back then. You do now. So go for it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you not hear anything I said? He’s got a girlfriend, and he’s an employee.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And there were too many reasons for Levi to doubt what he’d once thought Eren felt for him. Too few he could think of for Eren to have truly loved him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Those are some </span>
  <em>
    <span>damn</span>
  </em>
  <span> petty problems, compared to what the two of you had going against you last time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe. But petty doesn’t mean they’re not valid.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hanji exhaled noisily, then reached out to grab one of the to-go cups Eren had given them and sipped coffee loudly. “Well. If you’re going to be stubborn, I’ll just keep coming over and eating his food as long as he sticks around.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My food.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nope.” Hanji shot Levi a quick grin. “Until you stop being an idiot, it’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span> food.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Then There Were Lies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Almost two hours after Levi finally dragged Hanji out the door, Eren heard the clatter of someone coming in downstairs, noisily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He dropped the sheets he’d been stripping from Levi’s bed and stepped out onto the landing just in time to see Ymir almost trip over Smartass. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Resting his arms on the bannister, Eren grinned as he watched her swear down at the cat. She had her good arm wrapped around an almost empty paper grocery bag while her other, held rigid in a cast, carefully maneuvered a shiny new mop and bucket over the floor. Behind her, Historia stepped in from the cold, then used her foot to kick the door shut, her arms so full of bags that Eren could only see the top of her head.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was wondering if you’d turn up,” he called. “Weren’t you supposed to be here an hour ago?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nudging Smartass aside with her leg, Ymir lifted her gaze from the cat to Eren. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>You’re welcome</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Next time you can get your own groceries.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no, I’m impressed. I was sure you’d figure out some excuse why you couldn’t come, and yet here you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can leave again if you’re gonna be like that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop it, Ymir. And Eren, of course we were still coming.” Historia started offloading bags onto the wide, rarely used dining table on one side of the main room. “We just got held up at the store. But this is still technically Ymir’s job. Isn’t that right, Ymir?” Historia’s voice was so sweetly pointed that Eren realized he’d stepped right into some ongoing argument. “You’d never dump it on someone else, would you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Babe, it’s not like I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>trying</span>
  </em>
  <span> to get out of work.” Ymir lifted her cast covered arm as Historia took the bag she held in the other. “The doctor said not to jar my ribs while they heal, so I’ve gotta be careful. I’m healing bones here. It’s a lot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh?” Historia turned to set the bag on the table with a distinct </span>
  <em>
    <span>thunk</span>
  </em>
  <span> that made Eren wince. He edged back from the bannister and started down the stairs, moving as noiselessly as possible so he wouldn’t accidentally attract their attention. “Are you saying I ought to be more sympathetic?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean </span>
  <em>
    <span>mayb</span>
  </em>
  <span>-” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you didn’t get enough of that earlier? Or was having every single person in that grocery store fawn over you not enough?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Babe-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>babe</span>
  </em>
  <span> me when I’m mad,” Historia’s tone was acidic, but Eren, reaching the bottom of the stairs, saw her hands were gentle as she began carefully unwrapping the thickly knit scarf from around Ymir’s neck. “I swear I’ve never seen so many grown women freak out over an arm in a cast. And you were </span>
  <em>
    <span>encouraging</span>
  </em>
  <span> them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was just-”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Oo-oh it doesn’t hurt </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> much’, ‘I’m getting used to the pain’, ‘seeing you so worried about me makes it feel </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> better’.” Historia mocked as she reached up, snatched off the bobble hat that matched - if matched was the right word when it came to the wild mixture of colors, yarns, and stitches involved - Ymir’s scarf. “They kept glaring at me as if I’d personally dragged you out of the hospital. I swear half of those idiots wanted to take you home with them and tuck you into bed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir blinked, then angled her head to the side. “But sweetheart. You know the only bed I want to be tucked into is yours.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Historia snorted, but even Eren could sense the sudden release of tension in the air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re such a...a </span>
  <em>
    <span>flirt</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Ymir.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, babe,” There was a gleam in Ymir’s eyes as she grinned cockily down at Historia. “I just can’t help it. Women flock to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shaking her head, Historia gestured for Eren to come and help, and Eren, knowing the danger was officially past, obligingly hopped off the last step and took the damp bundle Historia handed him, leaving her free to ease Ymir out of her coat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As always, he did his best not to look too closely as he hung the scarf, hat, and mittens up by the door. If any one of the many colors Historia had knit into the fabric could be considered the dominant one, it would be the yellow Historia called ‘lemon’ and Eren privately called ‘radioactive pee’. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d been threatening to make him a set just like it, and Eren - cold as he was, and much as he loved her - was sincerely grateful that she’d been too busy. Luckily, Ymir loved Historia to the point of distraction, and didn’t even seem to notice that it made her look like the aftermath of a nuclear spill in an arts and crafts store.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you manage to get everything on the list?” He asked, turning back just as Historia finally freed Ymir from the last of her outdoor gear. He was also just in time to see Ymir slide her good arm around Historia’s waist and attempt to dip her back into a kiss. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her mouth met the palm of Historia’s hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Historia slid out of her grip, smiling at Eren. “We got most of it. Ymir picked out a few replacements she thought Mr. Ackerman would be okay with.”   </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That should work.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ignoring the now pouting Ymir, Historia headed over to the table and began separating the bags of cleaning supplies from food for the fridge. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How long can you stay before you have to leave for work?” Eren asked as he followed her.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Five. That’ll be enough time, right?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Thanks for coming to help.” Eren pulled out an industrial-sized bottle of bleach, set it aside. “There’s a lot of house to clean.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I don’t know.” Evidently done pouting, Ymir sauntered across to join them, edging in next to Historia at the table. “This place is in pretty good shape, it looks to me like you’re managing. After all, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> did it all on my own.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Historia laughed as she picked up several bags and started for the kitchen. “That’s because you’re a monster when it comes to cleaning.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right. And that’s why Le- why Mr. Ackerman tolerates your piss-poor cooking.” Eren added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unoffended, Ymir smirked at Eren. “He’ll probably cry when we have to swap back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Only if I don’t get fired first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You won’t get fired. Nobody would fire you once you’ve fed them.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can cook well enough, and I get by on cleaning, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>Ymir</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Eren looked up, met Ymir’s eyes directly. “You know that isn’t the problem here.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Almost as if she hadn’t heard, Ymir turned away and headed across the room to the circle of couches facing Eren’s Christmas tree. “We got a letter from the bank this morning.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” Successfully distracted, despite knowing better, Eren left the groceries to follow her. “What did it say?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir dropped onto one of the long sofas, wincing almost imperceptibly as she landed. “Our official signing is set for the second week of January. We should have the funds in six weeks if all goes well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So soon?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh-huh.” Ymir draped her good arm on the back of the sofa and raised her eyebrows at him. “So all</span>
  <em>
    <span> you</span>
  </em>
  <span> have to do is behave until then.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not a problem of behaving.” Eren dropped onto the couch across from her. “I can behave all day. But at some point, he’s gonna notice the permanent drool on my chin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can’t you just, I don’t know, maybe imagine him wearing a big sack over his face?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not his face that’s the problem, mostly. Or, not only.” Eren let his head fall back, and a second later lifted it again to glare at her. “And that reminds me, it doesn’t help that you lied to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir blinked. “I did?”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You said you barely even saw him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. And?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You told me he was usually up by the time you got here, and you hardly ever had to wake him up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t, most of the time.” At Eren’s stare, she shrugged, “Maybe sometimes, sure, but he wakes so easily that he was almost always already heading to the shower by the time I got upstairs with his coffee.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop pretending, Ymir. I make so much noise every morning, and he’s always still fast asleep when I go into his room.” Smartass hopped up onto the couch next to Eren, and he idly scratched him behind his ears, making the cat’s eyes narrow in bliss. “And you could have at least warned me he sleeps in the nude.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir went very still. She stared at Eren. “What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Eren hadn’t known better he’d have thought he’d genuinely shocked her. He rolled his eyes. “No wonder he had to put in that rule about no one working here who’d be attracted to him since he walks around naked in front of them all the time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A strange, questioning look crossed over Ymir’s face. She seemed about to say something when she was distracted by Historia’s arrival as she sat on the wide arm of the sofa next to Ymir. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did Ymir tell you about the letter from the bank?” Historia asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. And I told her the next six weeks would be a lot easier if she’d been more honest when she got me to agree to this plan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That isn’t fair, Eren. I was perfectly honest with you. I only lied to Mr. Ackerman, and all I said was that he wasn’t your type and you’d never be interested in him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren shuddered. “That one’s big enough on its own.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Historia giggled. “It sure is. Anyone who ever saw your room back in junior high would never believe it. It was like a Levi Ackerman shrine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was a long time ago. And we swore never to talk about junior high, remember?” Eren slumped back against the couch, glad it was comfortable enough despite the stylish angles. “I almost passed out when Ymir told me she was working for him, and now I’m here, seeing him every day.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, but you have a holiday, soon, don’t you?” Historia said brightly. “That’ll give you time to regroup.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” And Eren didn’t mention how little he was looking forward to that holiday. “But Ymir, hurry up and heal. I don’t know how long I can keep this up.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There, there,” Ymir said, not at all sympathetically. “And stop slandering me to Historia. I only told one lie, and it was for a good cause.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, sorry, my bad.” Eren was about to stand up when he had another thought. “Hey, Ymir, any idea why Le- why Mr. Ackerman thinks I have a girlfriend?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir’s smile faltered. Her eyes slid away from Eren’s. “Maybe you just seem the type?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Ymir</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Eren and Historia said at once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir waved a dismissive hand through the air. “Look. I had to. He wasn’t going for it even after I told him about my friend, the amazing cook and baker, who I swore would </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> be into him. So I told him you had a girlfriend already, and when that wasn’t enough I showed him a photo of you and some girl I happened to have on my phone. He just stared at it for ages, and then asked when you could start.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What girl?”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, what girl?” Historia asked a little more sharply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir grinned up at her girlfriend. “Remember that blonde chick, the one who worked at the coffee shop for like a week before she got a gig dancing at the big club downtown? The one with the absolutely giant-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. I remember her.” Historia narrowed her eyes. “Why did you just happen to be keeping a photo of her on your phone?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leaning up, Ymir kissed Historia’s nose. “Eren was in it too. It was very useful, wasn’t it?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever, that’s not important,” Eren cut in. “Why her?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir shrugged. “Well, I figured she was like the polar opposite of Mr. Ackerman. After seeing her, you could probably drool on his ass and he’d still think you weren’t into him.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren scrubbed his hair back from his face, wondering why something that should have relieved him very much did not. “You’re such a pain, Ymir.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe.” Shifting a little towards Historia, Ymir snuggled into her side. “But you both love me anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So that’s it, right?” Eren asked. “No more lies. Just the two.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Two.” Ymir agreed, holding up two fingers. “That’s it. Two lies aren’t all that much.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine. I’ll do my best to keep out of his way, and I won’t let him figure out I don’t have a girlfriend.” Eren sighed, then gave Smartass one last pat and stood. “For now, I guess we ought to get to work so Historia can get out of here on time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Historia stood too, Ymir let herself lean back on the couch. “I’ll sit this one out. I’m sure you guys can do a good job without me.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren eyed her. “And what will you be doing?”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll just supervise from here. I really ought to make sure not to jostle anything, like the doctor said.” She grimaced theatrically, patting her cast. “I’m feeling a little delicate. I might have pushed it a little, carrying that mop earlier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a gentle smile, Historia leaned down to kiss the top of her head. “Oh, you poor baby. I didn’t realize.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren, who’d known Historia a few years longer than Ymir had, recognized that tone of voice. He had to turn away to hide his smirk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should have told me, today must have been so hard on you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Ymir agreed.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well. When I get home I’ll do all your usual chores, just to make up for it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve been thinking the apartment needs a good cleaning. This will be a perfect opportunity to set up the spare bedroom.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir’s voice was getting a little more uncertain now. “The spare bedroom?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh-huh, I’ll have to get it ready.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ready for what?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like you said. We mustn’t let you get </span>
  <em>
    <span>jostled</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I’ll move into there for now.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, wait-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, baby, you mean you’ll take the spare room? That’s so sweet of you.” Patting the side of Ymir’s face, Historia smiled down at her. “You can stay there until you aren’t feeling so </span>
  <em>
    <span>delicate</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know what, I think maybe I was just sitting wrong.” Ymir quickly got to her feet, wiggled her shoulders. “Yup. I feel great. All good now. Let’s get cleaning.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then she turned a little too abruptly and flinched in real pain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instantly concerned, Historia darted in front of Ymir, her hands lightly skimming over her rib cage. “What’s wrong? What hurts?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir’s face went soft, gentle, as she smiled down at Historia. “No babe, I’m good. I just moved too quickly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You need to be more careful. Stop playing around.”  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know. I got carried away.” All trace of the cockiness Ymir usually wore was gone, and her eyes were warm as she watched Historia. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Historia sighed. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Do</span>
  </em>
  <span> you need to sit today out? Eren and I can handle it on our own.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ymir shook her head. “No, I was just messing with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Huffing out a breath, Historia stood on tiptoe to kiss Ymir lightly. “Stop doing that, okay?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe.” Ymir’s grin was back on her face as she looked up at Eren. “But for now I guess we better see what we can do to help Eren get through the next six weeks.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren smiled back, a little weakly. Six weeks didn’t sound like much. He could make it. All he had to do was avoid temptation for six weeks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t know how, but somehow, he would. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Levi heard Eren first, as he always did. He lay on his back, drowsily blinking up at the ceiling as he listened to Eren walk across the room towards him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He closed his eyes an instant before he felt the bed dip. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He couldn’t see Eren now, but he could smell him. He could feel the heat of Eren’s arm braced on the bed, of his body as he leaned across him. Warm, firm lips touched the corner of his, then slid across to take his mouth fully. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi’s arms wrapped around Eren’s neck, anchoring him in close before he let himself open his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren’s were still shut, lashes dark against his skin, and Levi felt an instant of dissatisfaction before he was distracted by the sensation of Eren’s body pressing down onto his.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The weight of him was bliss. Heavy, radiating a heat almost too hot to bear. Levi felt the soft hair and velvet skin of the muscled thigh that slid between his own and shivered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren’s eyes were open now as he smiled down at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi reached up, smoothed a hand through Eren’s hair the way he’d imagined a million times, the way he could </span>
  <em>
    <span>almost</span>
  </em>
  <span> remember. He knew Eren’s hair had to be so, so very soft, but for some reason, he couldn’t feel it beneath his fingers. He knew he ought to be able to, but he just couldn’t. All he felt was...nothing. The frustration made him frown, and he began to pull his arms away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eren leaned in close enough that his warm breath washed over Levi’s ear as he spoke, lovingly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good morning, Mr. Ackerman. My girlfriend says hi.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi woke. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stared at the ceiling, his heart thumping in his chest, the blood in his body so hot it felt like it was boiling beneath his skin.  </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well, hell.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Sucking in a deep breath, he did his best to bring his body back under his own control. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, eventually, he sat up and glanced at the bedside clock. He didn’t have to be awake for another two hours, technically. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He scrubbed his hair back from his face and stood, abruptly. He almost tripped over Smartass, lying stretched out on the heated floor as he walked across to his bag and grabbed his script, and almost tripped over him again on the way back to bed. Smartass yowled at him, got up, and stalked out of the room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi glared after him, and seriously considered following him to...what? Pet the cat until he gave in and purred? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fed up with himself, Levi dropped onto the bed with his script. He’d work on it until he heard Eren come in downstairs. Then he’d take off his damned clothes, drape himself attractively over the bed like some artist’s nude model, and pretend to be asleep so Eren would have to come in and wake him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was so damn embarrassed at himself he was having trouble meeting his own eyes in the mirror. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not that it meant anything, of course. It wasn’t like he was...how had Hanji put it...</span>
  <em>
    <span>seducing</span>
  </em>
  <span> Eren. It was just an experiment, that was all. He was proving something to himself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>What he was proving even he had no idea.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was just...a thing. And it wasn’t like he expected any particular reaction from Eren, either. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sure wasn’t getting one. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it was just for now. However long he had Eren in his house. At some point, Eren would leave, and Levi would happily get on with a life that had no Eren in it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi dropped the script onto his chest, threw his arm up over his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was such bullshit. The biggest, fattest bullshit he could tell himself, and in the cold light before dawn, he had to acknowledge it for the lie that it was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But maybe when the sun came up he’d be able to go back to believing it. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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